Midseason Update: 

Peter’s turn as the lead during this season has produced a season that can be charitably described as…unusual. The women competing for his affection have been visibly frustrated with his choices more than once, and many fans online have echoed those feelings. Given how tumultuous this season has been, we wanted to check in with fans as we near the end of the season to see how they have felt about about how this edition of their favorite show has gone. Once again we surveyed 1,000 fans of the franchise to see how they feel about the season so far as well as the things yet to come on the show and beyond.

First off, we asked fans who they see as the biggest “villain” of the season, as in most years at least one contestant finds themselves on the wrong side of fan opinions. In this season there are two top contenders based on our survey, with both Sydney and Victoria F. earning over 25% of the total vote. Interestingly, fan complaints with this season run so deep that a significant percentage (over 17%) of responses to this question point to Peter himself or the show’s producers as the biggest villains as opposed to an unruly contestant.

Given the fact that more than 10% of fans think Peter is the biggest overall villain of his own season on the show, it may not be all that surprising that the majority of fans have a negative opinion of how he has done in the spotlight. Over 85% of those surveyed say he has bugged them more than previous Bachelors, which is a remarkable turn given the fact that in our preseason survey less than 10% of respondents expected him to bug them more than previous leads. Even more overwhelmingly, 93% of fans consider Peter to be a “bad” Bachelor.

In terms of fan predictions going forward, the contestant the most people think Peter will end up with at the end of the season is Madison, who earned over 62% of the vote. No other actual contestant cracked 10% in our survey, and the second-place finisher for this question is simply “No one,” with almost 27% of the responses selecting that option. Fans are also gearing themselves up for a lackluster finish, as 87% believe the dramatic ending the show has been teasing will NOT live up to the hype.

 

Finally, we asked fans which woman from this season of The Bachelor they would most like to see as the lead in the next season of The Bachelorette. Opinions were divided here, though once again “None” finished in second, less than  a half a percent behind Kelley. Interestingly, the response with the third-most votes was Hannah Brown, the woman who rejected Peter as the lead in the most recent season of The Bachelorette.

 

Original Post: 

With another installment of their favorite show on the horizon, Bachelor Nation is currently waiting with bated breath to see how all the drama and romance of Peter Weber’s season unfolds. While those hallmarks of the Bachelor and Bachelorette franchises keep viewers coming back time and again, that doesn’t mean there aren’t things even the biggest of Bachelor fans find annoying or repetitive about the show they love. 

Much like we did when finding out which sports fans “bug” people the most, we decided to go directly to the source and survey the Bachelor fandom to find out the phrases, contestants, and behaviors that bother them the most when it comes to their favorite show. After consulting over 1,000 self-identified show superfans, we were able to get a better picture of exactly what bugs Bachelor fans (but not enough to keep them from coming back season after season, of course). We have graphed out the results of our efforts, which longtime fans, show critics, and everyone in between can find below! 

There are certain phrases uttered by show contestants, Bachelors and Bachelorettes, and even largely beloved host Chris Harrison that longtime viewers have heard so often that they can’t help but instinctively roll their eyes with every new utterance. 

In terms of phrases uttered by the contestants vying for the affections of the show’s lead, the one that fans find the most bothersome is “[Name] isn’t here for the right reasons,” a phrase that might just be the most well-known in all of reality television. Coming in second, and just 5% behind the winner, is another Bachelor mainstay, “Can I steal you for a second?” 

In terms of things that the show leads say too often, fans overwhelmingly said they are sick of hearing Bachelors and Bachelorettes say that they “Definitely see my wife/husband in this room,” as that phrase was voted most annoying by over 28% of respondents. Even Chris Harrison can’t avoid some mild ire from the Bachelor fanbase, with over 20% of fans saying they are bugged by his tendency to play up the level of drama and controversy of events on the show. 

Finally, we looked at instances where contestants or show leads tried to distinguish themselves with a catchphrase they would utter time and again while on the show. These efforts to make “fetch” happen annoy the show’s fans more often than not and that was particularly true in the case of Lucas Yancey, a season 13 Bachelorette contestant who tried (and tried and tried) and failed to make “Whaboom” a part of his identity as well as the cultural lexicon. Nearly 27% of Bachelor fans found his attempted catchphrase to be the worst in show history, though Cam Ayala’s “ABC- Always Be Cam” and Becca Kufrin’s  “Let’s do the damn thing” both have their own sizeable legions of detractors, earning over 19% of the vote each. 

The Bachelor franchise is known for repeated behaviors as much as repeated phrases, and fans are bugged by these actions just as much as the groan-inducing phrases discussed above. 

In terms of contestant behaviors that viewers are sick of seeing, over 36% of responses singled out people randomly bursting out into song in an effort to boost their post-show singing careers as their biggest annoyance. A related behavior came in second with over 32%, which is contestants using the show as an overly-obvious way to promote themselves and their “brand.” When it comes to introductions, specifically, Bachelor Nation overwhelmingly dislikes when a contestant introduces themselves with a slogan or catchphrase they are trying to make into “a thing” (Lucas Yancey, looking at you again). 

Of course, the show itself and its producers are not free from criticism in this arena. We also asked fans what production tropes bug them the most about the franchise, and over 31% of responses singled out the tendency for producers to make the show lead keep a contestant who has emerged as a “villain” on the show far longer than seems reasonable based on their behavior.    

While most of what we have covered so far concerns more generic aspects of the show, our survey also delved into specifics concerning which former contestants, Bachelors, and Bachelorettes fans found the most annoying during their time on the air. 

First, we asked which former potential suitors from The Bachelorette and The Bachelor bugged fans the most. On the former show, each of the top three responses came from recent seasons, with both of the top spots belonging to men from poor Hannah Brown’s recently finished season, as Luke Parker and Jed Wyatt both drew the ire of more than 27% of the fandom, well ahead of third-place finisher Lee Garrett from Rachel Lindsay’s 2017 season.  

In terms of which former Bachelor contestant bugged fans the most, a clear-cut number one emerged once the votes were tallied, with Corrine Olympios from Nick Viall’s season taking 30% of the vote, nearly 10 percentage points higher than Kelsey Poe in second place.  

The contestants aren’t the only ones that can annoy Bachelor Nation, as the franchise has seen its fair share of leads that have rubbed fans the wrong way, some of which are still the subject of complaints on social media and show message boards years after their turn in the show’s spotlight has ended.   

To the surprise of no one who follows The Bachelor, Juan Pablo Galavis was named the former Bachelor that bugged fans the most. What might be surprising, however, is that he took that top spot by just a few percentage points, as the most recent Bachelor, Colton Underwood, received less than 2.5% fewer votes. 

On the Bachelorette side of things, the voting was similarly close, though none of the women received as large a percentage of the votes as their male counterparts. Ali Fedotowsky edged out Andi Dorfman by less than a single percent to be named the Bachelorette that bugged fans the most, with Kaitlyn Bristowe within 2.5% of being number one as well.   

In terms of those latter results, another aspect of our survey may shine a little light on why the results shook out the way they did. We asked respondents to tell us which former Bachelor and Bachelorette personalities they find most annoying on Instagram following their time on the show, with a particular emphasis on those that have become shills for different brands and products. 

Two of the three Bachelorettes fans found the most annoying show up on this list, with Kaitlyn Bristowe and Ali Fedotowsky being the only two personalities to get at least 10% of the overall vote. This revelation raises an interesting “chicken or the egg” situation, where we are left to wonder if their behavior on the show is why fans dislike them on social media or vice versa!  

Winding down our survey, we wanted to explore another aspect of The Bachelor franchise that has become synonymous with the show: spoilers. 

Reality Steve has built himself an empire and a devoted following based on years of investigation and reporting on spoilers and results relating to the franchise. We wanted to see how the most dedicated Bachelor fans feel about spoilers like those that have made Steve famous, and we were honestly a little surprised by what we found. 

While you would think that fans would want to experience the twists, turns, and drama of the show with no advance knowledge of how things will shake out, we found that nearly half of fans actively seek out spoilers as soon as they are made available. Beyond that, an additional 37% do not get upset if the show is spoiled for them, even if they do not go out of their way to find final results themselves. Only 11.84% of fans actually go out of their way to avoid spoilers, putting those unspoiled fans in a pretty small minority.   

Finally, we wanted to get a sense of how fans feel about the newest Bachelor, pilot Peter Weber. His season debuts January 6, and fans got a taste of his personality on the most recent season of The Bachelorette, where he finished third. 52% of fans feel that he will bug them about the same as most previous Bachelors, while nearly 27% actually think he will be slightly less annoying than previous leads. On the flip side, just 9.47% think he will annoy them more than previous Bachelors. 

So there you have it, our look at what “bugs” Bachelor and Bachelorette fans when it comes their favorite show is complete, just in time for the franchise’s newest installment. And while we can’t help the show or its producers with contestants spinning a web of lies or sticking around past their welcome like a cockroach on the show, here at Insight Pest solutions we can help clear your home of those kinds of literal pests so you can sit down, relax, and enjoy your favorite show in the comfort of a bug-free home.